Attend rally to get the straight state education facts

Wednesday

Aug 21, 2013 at 12:01 AMAug 21, 2013 at 2:59 PM

From Robbinsville to Wilmington, educators, parents, students, and community leaders have been rallying to protest the state Legislature and governorís misleading claims about our education budget. You can get the facts straight with the Alamance-Burlington Association of Educators, at the courthouse in Graham Saturday from 10 a.m. to noon.

In the meantime, let me cut through some of the Legislature and administrationís talking points with a couple of clarifications.

First, they intentionally confuse money budgeted with money spent. If you compare money spent last year with money budgeted this year, the much exaggerated $360 million increase becomes a more modest $24 million increase in education spending. That is an increase of only about .3 percent, which becomes a .5 percent or more decrease when considering student population growth.

The effects of these cuts are exaggerated even more by the spending priorities. They divert public education dollars to private and charter schools that cater to higher-income, high-achieving students. This leaves public schools with fewer resources to teach students with greater needs. And they have ended the very successful NC Teaching Fellows program while increasing funding to Teach for America. After 22 years, 60 percent of Teaching Fellows have stayed in teaching, while only 10 percent of Teach for America participants are still in teaching after five years. This is a poor investment in public education.

And how do they justify undermining and underfunding public education? By claiming we are broke. But not too broke to refuse billions of federal tax dollars for Medicaid expansion. And not too broke to afford lowering the tax rate on top earners by 25 percent, lowering the corporate tax rate by 25 percent, and eliminating the estate tax. These three tax reductions amount to three quarters of a billion dollars in lost tax revenue. Alamance County will lose $4.9 million in education funding, which means losing 52 teachers and teacher assistants, nine support staff, and $1.6 million for supplies, technology, and development.

To understand the impact it helps to look closely at the numbers, but even more importantly we need to hear from teachers, students, and parents. So come to the rally in Graham on Saturday, and listen to the people who know from experience what it takes for Alamance County children to succeed in the classroom.